Balloons made of rubber, latex, Mylar®, or other suitable material have long been filled with air and used as gifts, decorations, or toys. They are often made of reflective or colorful material, and are often imprinted with designs, depictions of characters, or slogans such as “Happy Birthday!” They are common at birthday parties, graduations, and other festive events.
Balloons may be filled by normal atmospheric air (from a pump or from a person blowing into the balloon to inflate it), and are known as “air-filled balloons.” However, balloons are sometimes inflated with helium, which is lighter than the surrounding air and causes the balloons to rise, or float if tethered. These buoyant helium balloons are customarily fixed by the balloon retailer with a line such as a string, ribbon, or some kind of a decorative cord so that they may be held (to prevent them from floating away), and they are commonly secured by tying the line to a heavy or stationary object or to balloon weights currently sold on the market. Such balloon weights are structured for use with only helium balloons, so if a consumer wants to also secure and display an air-filled balloon (which is filled with non-helium gases and is not buoyant), the consumer would normally have to utilize a separate balloon holding device made specifically for air-filled balloons. Air-filled balloons, particularly reflective Mylar® balloons, are often fixed by the retailer with a balloon cup and stick apparatus instead of with a line or cord.
The holding devices for air-filled balloons are also limited since they can only be used with air-filled balloons. For instance, air-filled balloons are usually held and displayed by a plastic funnel-shaped balloon cup and stick apparatus. The air-filled balloon is attached directly onto a balloon cup, and the balloon cup is attached to the tip of a stick. Inflated air-filled balloons sold to consumers are usually sold with the air-filled balloon already attached to the balloon cup and stick apparatus. However, the balloon cup and stick apparatus alone cannot also function to secure helium balloons since a balloon cup and stick apparatus does not provide enough mass to hold down one or more helium balloons.
Other air-filled balloon holding devices also function as a decorative centerpiece, but they also lack the necessary mass to hold down one or more helium balloons and lack structures to which a helium balloon line can be securely attached to. If helium balloons are to form part of a centerpiece for placement on a dining table or any other display, then the helium balloons should be securely held down in a decorative and aesthetically pleasing method which is not possible with the available centerpiece devices that hold only air-filled balloons.
Furthermore, air-filled balloon devices that also function as a centerpiece may also be too specialized as they are adapted for use with specific air-filled balloons that are packaged in a deflated state and sold together with the specialized holder (“prepackaged balloons”). These prepackaged balloons are not usually sold separately from its specialized holder. A potential drawback is that the user may not want to use the prepackaged balloon sold with the specialized holder and may prefer to use another air-filled balloon (e.g., one for a particular occasion) that are commonly sold in any party supply store, greeting card store, toy store, gift store, or even a grocery store. In such instances, the user may be deterred from using a preferred air-filled balloon with such specialized devices since these devices are structured and adapted to hold their specific prepackaged balloons, and it may seem like a waste of money for the user to have to purchase an additional balloon when the user has already paid for the prepackaged balloon. Additionally, these prepackaged balloons are limited in selection since they usually contain images of licensed cartoon characters which may not appeal to everyone, especially adults.
If the user decides to use the prepackaged balloon, then the user has an additional burden of having to inflate the balloon himself and having to figure out how to attach and assemble the inflated balloon onto the specialized holding device. The specialized holding device contains non-universal structures that hold the air-filled balloons as these structures may only be used with the specialized holding device. Also, such holding devices may employ non-reusable components to help secure the air-filled balloon such as adhesives or adhesive tapes that do not allow the device to easily be disassembled, stored, and reused, and do not allow the air-filled balloon to easily be interchanged with different varieties if the user changes his mind or if the user wants to later reuse the holding device with a different air-filled balloon.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a multifunctional, versatile, universal, interchangeable, reusable, simple to use, and aesthetically pleasing balloon holding device that secures both helium balloons and air-filled balloons; does not require specialized air-filled balloons; allows the user to select virtually any balloon commonly sold in any market; allows the user to easily interchange the balloons; and allows users to easily disassemble, store, and reuse the holding device. A balloon holding device that addresses all of the above-mentioned drawbacks in the art would not only provide a consumer with a wide array of balloon displaying options, but it would certainly be more cost-efficient since a separate holding device would not have to be purchased if securing and displaying both helium and air-filled balloons, the components of the device would be universal allowing it to be used with practically any balloon on the market, the device is reusable since it is easily collapsible, and different balloons may easily be interchanged for different occasions. Other advantages of the present invention will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art in light of the ensuing description of the present invention.